The man, Jarrod W. Ramos, had previously pleaded not guilty on 23 charges, including five counts of first-degree murder, after what is considered the deadliest attack against journalists in the United States. A circuit court judge in Maryland, Laura Ripken, accepted Ramos’ plea and found him guilty after a lengthy hearing Monday.
Editors, reporters and a sales assistant were killed in the June 2018 shooting at The Capital, a daily newspaper in Annapolis, Maryland. Ramos had a long history of conflict with the Capital Gazette, the community newspaper chain that publishes The Capital.
A trial to determine whether he is criminally responsible is expected to start Nov. 4. If he is found not criminally responsible, he could be sent to a state psychiatric facility instead of prison.
Prosecutors said they had assembled overwhelming evidence proving that Ramos had carried out the attack. In court filings, prosecutors said they planned to show the jury surveillance videotape of the shooting, in which a gunman is seen firing shotgun blasts through the newspaper office’s glass doors and then continuing to fire once inside.
Anne Colt Leitess, the Anne Arundel County state’s attorney, told the court Monday that Ramos had barricaded shut the back door of the newsroom and an insurance business across the hall before opening fire.
Wendi Winters, a reporter at the newspaper, tried to stop Ramos by wielding a recycling bin, prosecutors said. Winters, 65, was killed in the attack.
Once authorities got inside the building, Leitess said, police officers found Ramos under a desk, hiding silently. Prosecutors said an officer’s body-worn video camera recorded Ramos saying: “I surrender. I surrender. I’m your shooter.”
When authorities first asked Ramos his name, Leitess said, he responded, “You don’t know my name?” Ramos then told them to talk to the leaders of the newspaper.
This article originally appeared in
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